


Thorns and Roses

by Nyx (Nixlir)



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Art, Blood and Gore, Depression, Detectives, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Kidnapping, M/M, Memory Alteration, Minor Character Death, Murder, Nurses, POV Third Person, Personal Growth, Police, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Priests, Spoilers, Weapons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-24 22:08:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22265236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nixlir/pseuds/Nyx
Summary: Sebastian Castellanos had just got out of Stem. And on the other side waiting for him was none other than Stefano Valentini. With Lily having been taken again, and the only one who really knew her captor enough to find her, Sebastian was reduced to working with his enemy.
Relationships: Sebastian Castellanos & Tatiana Gutierrez, Sebastian Castellanos/Stefano Valentini
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	1. The Day of Reckoning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian is freshly out of Union, and Stem is destroyed, the first thing he expects to happen is to find his daughter and finally leave, maybe find Joseph, and turn his life around. The last thing he expects is for everyone that died, to be alive again.

Sebastian woke up to a blast of cold air on his face, it had been so long since he experienced the real world that it almost didn't seem real. But it was, and it was like a harsh slap to the face. 

"Wake up Sebastian, god dammit," Kidman said, standing over him. Her arm raised above Sebastian as if she was ready to slap him again. "We have a problem." She said as Sebastian sat up and looked around the lab.

"Lily, where is she?" He asked, slowly climbing out of the tub. His clothes were thoroughly soaked and Kidman handed him a towel. "Thanks," he said as he wrapped it around himself. 

"That's the problem, Theodore took her before I could get to her." 

Sebastian gave her a look of disbelief and confusion. "He's dead, I killed him, how could he have taken her?" 

"Because people don't actually die in Stem," a third voice said, walking up behind them. "Everyone thought they did, until people started coming back, including me."

Juli gave a sigh as Sebastian turned around, seeing the one and only Stefano Valentini standing there shivering. This time he was in a soaked hospital gown, and seemed rather ticked off about it. 

"You." Sebastian growled, reaching for one of his guns only to find nothing there. Stefano instinctively held his hands up in surrender. "What is this psychopath doing here Kidman; I thought I killed him too?"

Kidman rolled her eyes. "That's what he's been trying to tell you." She typed some things on a computer and a series of pictures appeared on a bigger monitor mounted on the wall. Alongside them was camera footage inside a hospital. "Four out of five members of Alpha team are still alive, Sykes....didn't make it." She sighed shaking her head. He was the only one who's picture wasn't there.

"So, no one dies, that means Torres, Myra..." Sebastian mumbled, his voice growing softer at the mention of his wife. 

"Torres is alive." Kidman pressed a key and the screen switched to Torres lying in a hospital bed. "None of them have any actual, physical damage, most of it is mental, and they've been put into comas to prevent... Anything else from happening." She sighed, dreading what she was about to say next. "But..."

"But what?" 

"Myra couldn't have survived, with what happened to her in Union... She's dead..." 

"God dammit," Sebastian mumbled, sitting down on the edge of the tub shivering. He thought to himself for a second. "So Theodore's still alive, and along with him, Stefano." 

Stefano rolled his eyes and glared at Sebastian. "Yes, and Theodore still wants Lily for himself and we need to go now!" He reached for Sebastian's arm, starting to pull him out of the room.  
Before he could even start pulling Sebastian grabbed him by the shoulders and pinned him harshly against the wall.

"And why should I trust you out of everyone; you kidnapped her first; you killed people!" 

"That wasn't me!" He yelled pushing Sebastian away from him, grabbing his wrist again, and twisting it behind his back as their positions switched. 

Sebastian struggled against him. "What the hell are you talking about?" He growled. "It looks like you, sounds like you, it is you. So pray tell how the fuck it isn't?" 

"They altered him." Kidman said, splitting the two apart. "It was a new kind of test, for integration into the system, we changed his memory, which in turn affected his personality..." She sighed regretfully, "it had some unexpected consequences." 

"Not just for you either," Stefano said, glaring at Kidman. "I was alive in there the whole time I was in Union, it didn't change me, it just created a new me, that took control." He walked over to a desk, ranting. "And no, you couldn't even bother to ask me, just had to kidnap an innocent man, stick a whole bunch of tubes up his brain, and completely change who he is and then turn him into a murderer!" He yelled, his voice getting louder with each word until he snapped, sweeping everything off the desk and throwing it aside. 

"Hey woah, calm down," Sebastian said, reaching for his shoulder. Before he could react Stefano grabbed him by the neck and pinned him up against the wall, slightly choking him as his uncut nails dug into his skin. 

"Don't tell me to calm down," Stefano said as he tightened his grip. "And don't touch me." His eyes seemed to get darker, like a shadow covered them, and his voice had a hint of malice in it the more he spoke. He seemed much more like the Stefano that Sebastian knew from Union. "You are nothing Sebastian Castellanos, you are scum, you are-" 

He suddenly stopped, his eyes going back to normal and his hand slipping away from Sebastians neck. "Oh mio dio..." He mumbled backing away in shock as Sebastian rubbed his neck. A little bit of blood came off his hand.

"What the hell was that?!" He asked, his voice raspy. 

"It seems the new personality has a lot more of an effect than we originally thought." Kidman mumbled, loud enough for the other two to hear. 

"No shit Kidman, how do we fix it?" Sebastian grabbed a thing of bandages and wrapped them around his neck. Pain felt so different in the real world too. 

"You can't," Stefano said, twiddling his thumbs, "I tried to and... Well it didn't work obviously." He sighed as he began to clean up his mess, dragging the table back and setting everything back up. "The other me... He takes control when I get angry... Sometimes if I'm sad enough he will too.

"But the more in control he is, the worse things get. He gets stronger, he can take control more, eventually then I'm just left with....nothing." He set the final object on the table, a small MOBIUS statue.


	2. The Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While staying at a nearby motel, things go south.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to mention real quick that my updates are going to be random, but I will try to keep it consistent.

The car ride out of the facility was a quiet, and awkward one. Stefano grumbled to himself a few times about his outfit, and how much a new one would cost, but other than that, everything was silent.

Until the brakes squealed as Kidman pulled into the parking lot of an old rundown motel, making everyone wince and Sebastian shifted in his seat. 

"Here, seriously?" Stefano asked, a look of disgust flashing across his face. Everyone got out of the car and Kidman grabbed a duffle bag out of the trunk. 

"It's the only place for miles; would you rather spend the rest of the night in that car and wet hospital gown, or a warm, and hopefully dry bed?" She asked, slamming the trunk door door and pulling out her wallet from the bag. 

Stefano rolled his eyes and followed after her and Sebastian, shivering at the cold breeze. The receptionist stared at them all as they walked in. "Hello, welcome to Motel 6, how may I help you three." 

"What can we get for this?" Kidman pulled out a hundred and set it on the counter. 

The lady reached under the table and grabbed a thing of keys, handing them to her. "Room 13," she said taking the $100 and stuffing it in her bra. "Just down the hallway, on the left."

Kidman took the key and made her way down to the room, Stefano followed while Sebastian went back outside, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter in his hands despite the no smoking signs posted around.

"He smokes?" He asked as Kidman set the duffle bag on the bed, unzipping it and taking out a few things.

"Yea, be glad he's not drinking, he's a depressed drunk, most of the time." She pulled out a set of clothes and handed them to Stefano. "Here, you can wear these for now, they might fit." 

"Polyester? There's no way I could wear this, where's the silk, the pure cotton, the velvets; this won't-" he stopped as Kidman glared at him and shoved the clothes into his arms. "Ah yes um..." He patted the clothes begrudgingly. "These will work just fine, thank you." Stefano changed in the bathroom, as Kidman made a few phone calls. She was just ending one of them when he walked out of the bathroom, wearing a button up shirt and a pair of regular jeans, which were both just slightly too big on him. Kidman tossed her phone on one of the two beds. 

"Can you go get Sebastian for me? I need to make a few more phone calls."

Stefano nodded and went outside to look for him. He was sitting on a bench by the pool, smoking a cigarette. 

"Isn't this a no smoking area?" He asked walking up to him. Sebastian just shrugged and looked at him, blowing smoke in his face. Stefano coughed, fanning it away. "I would prefer if you didn't do that. Anyway Kidman needs you for something."

Sebastian sighed and stood up, dropping the rest of his cigarette on the ground and stomping it out. "Did she say what it was about?"

Stefano shook his head. "No, but I'm assuming it has something to do with finding Lily, she's making a bunch of phone calls." They walked inside back to their room, where Kidman was on the phone with someone else.

"You wanted to talk?" Sebastian asked. 

She held a finger up to Sebastian, nodding. "Mhm, alright, I'll let him know." A beep came from her phone and she closed it, setting it aside. "Good news and bad news." 

"Bad news first." 

"No one has any sightings of Theodore and Lily, they're completely off the grid." 

Sebastian sighed and shook his head. "Great. What's the good news?" 

"The doctors just called me, Joseph is doing better, they think he'll wake up sometime this month." 

Everyone went silent. 

"Who is this Joseph?" Stefano asked breaking the silence. 

"My old partner, before I got fired." Sebastian said. "Kidman shot him back in Stem, after he...changed, like the rest of them." He looked down. "I thought he died but apparently not." 

"Back in Stem? But there wasn't a Joseph in Union." Stefano furrowed his eyebrows confused. 

"Not in Union, there was another Stem world, before Union, it's what our city was based off of, why it was created, and how." Kidman said, crossing her legs. 

"Me and Joseph got roped up into it with Kidman, because it turns out she was working with MOBIUS from the start." Sebastian glanced at her. "That doesn't matter though, he survived, and he's getting better so that's good."

"There's another thing," Kidman said hesitantly. "People have already figured out what I did, and they've cut me off from MOBIUS. Until Joseph wakes up and leaves the hospital himself, we can't see him. The chances that they'll just let him out are pretty low too. " 

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Of course there's a problem, maybe you should have thought this plan through more."

"Yea well maybe you shouldn't have come with me to Beacon, then Joseph wouldn't be in the hospital." 

"The hospital you put in him in, after shooting him then lying about his death." They continued fighting back and forth as Stefano stared out the window at a car that was pulling into the parking lot.

"Guys!" Stefano said stopping it. "I'm pretty sure right now we have more problems right now than just MOBIUS and Joseph." He pointed to the window to the faint outline of the new car, with a MOBIUS symbol on top.

"Operatives, they must've tracked my phone. We have to leave, now." Kidman stood up, packing everything back in the duffle bag and slinging it over her shoulder. She tossed Sebastian the car keys. "I'll go out front, they'll be looking for me anyway, you two go out the window and get away, find Lily."

Before either of them could protest, Kidman had already left the room and was heading down the hallway. Sebastian walked over to another window that was out of sight from the car.

"Shouldn't we help her?" Stefano asked walking over to him.

"You heard what she said, she wants us to get out and look for Lily, we can't do that if we're all caught and locked up in some MOBIUS facility." He opened the window and looked out, from left to right, before climbing out onto the sidewalk, Stefano followed after him. They ran to the car and got in. Sebastian started the car and looked up, seeing a few agents carry out Kidman who was in handcuffs and struggling against them. Another one had the bag, and her gun, phone, and the keys to the motel room.

"We have to help her!" Stefano said gesturing to them shoving her in the trunk of the car.

"We have to help Lily, she can help herself, Kidman's strong." Sebastian backed up and sped out of the parking lot, away from the motel, and Kidman.


End file.
